


Curiosity killed the Universe

by Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Confused Loki, Drama, Loki Feels, Loki-centric, Magic, parasitic creatures, things aren't as clear cut as they seem.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-03-18 20:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3582255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that/pseuds/Are_you_ever_not_going_to_fall_for_that
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki has plans to destroy Midgard but a splitting pain in his head and something that he has forgotten may distract him from his plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Thor or The Avengers
> 
> Timeline: Follows the events of Avengers and Thor 2 except that instead of faking his death Loki escapes.

He was done. The blue and green lights flashed before his eyes and he smiled. It had taken him months to make them, much longer then he had originally thought it would but he had found focusing a bit hard lately. That did not matter though, it was done and now he would destroy humanity! They had not wanted him to lead them and so they had to pay the consequences! He would going to blow up Midgard, the devices he had made if set off at the same time in the right positions would destroy the entirety of Midgard. Maybe then the next planet he wanted to rule would just realize how great of a king he would be, or at least fear him enough not to fight him.

The bombs were armed but Loki had several hours to get them to the right place; then he would leave earth before they went off. Loki smiled because Thor was on Midgard and while Thor was strong and mighty and more resilient than average midgardian; he doubted even Thor would be able to stand the blast that would swallow earth whole. Loki would finally destroy Thor along with the nasty Avengers who had stopped him. His revenge of the planet earth would be delicious.

Loki grimaced as the pain in his head increased and put his head into his palms. The pain was always there, but most time it was just a dull throb in the back of his mind that he could ignore as long as he was busy with something else at the time. His plot to destroy Midgard had helped much with his ailment. He didn't understand his ailment though and he didn't deal with pain well. Asgardians and Jotuns both had quicker metabolisms and healed quickly and due to his magic Loki had never been ill for this long.

 _There was something I am forgetting._ The thought floated through his mind like it had many times before, only to be forgotten again a moment later when the pain increased again. Loki pressed his head harder into his palms hoping that would somehow sooth it but it didn't. Nothing did. Loki had tried magic and he had even tried Midgardian medicine; nothing would make the pain in his head go away. It had captured him a few months ago out of nowhere and hadn't let him free since. It was like two midgardian jack hammers in his head.

He was a little ashamed that he even knew what jack hammers were but he had inadvertently learned a few things about them since he had been plotting against the midgardians as well as hiding from the Asgardians on Midgard. After today though everything would be different. Everything would be better.

Or it would be if his head would stop throbbing incessantly! Loki pressed his head into the cold hard concrete of the warehouse that he found that was no longer being used. He had made it his base and had also made it much more respectable looking using his magic. No longer was the concrete chipped in place, it was all smooth and much of it was no longer boring concrete but wood or marble: which was much more befitting of a king. However the room he was in was his work shop and Loki had no reason to make it very ornate so the floor was still concrete. There were scraps of metal from failed versions of the models he had tried to make before on the dark wooded table he had in front of him scattered amount the new and ready versions.

There were bright lights overhead which shone brightly and Loki even though it had never worked in the past extinguished the lights hoping that it would provide relief for his head. It didn't. In fact the pain seemed to impossibly get worse. Loki moved his hands without realizing it until his fingernails were digging into his skull.

His head was burning with pain! He hated this pain so much! He hated the humans so much! He hated his brother so much! They would all pay! All of them! Every single one of them would wish that they would have let him lead him when they had the choice! He would have been a great king! Now he would just destroy them! It would be so wonderful destroying them! If only the pain would stop! The agony! The never ending agony! It felt as it his skull were splitting down the middle! What could be causing such pain?!

The sensation of his skull being split increased and he dug his fingernails further into his head which didn't not help at all, but he couldn't seem to stop himself from doing it. He felt a different sensation then as the pain ebbed slightly. It was a familiar sensation but he couldn't really pinpoint where he had felt it before. There was something-multiple somethings making their way down his throat, he could feel it... whatever it was. Again the feeling that he should know what was going on hit him, but he ignored it because there was something foreign making it's way down his throat! Loki felt for a brief moment the things making their way through his mouth and that was when he saw them. There were dozens of black little dots shooting out of his moth. He only saw them for a few moments before the black little lights made their way from the room.

Loki blinked a few times before he collapsed onto the hard concrete floor, it was lucky that he had been sitting before or else the fall might have been painful. Loki felt weak and boneless. He couldn't move, or maybe he just didn't want to, he supposed it didn't really matter either way. He didn't want to think, to move, to exist so he did his best not to. However Loki's mind had never been one to just shut down even when he wished that it would and sooner then he would like it reminded him that he knew what the creatures were that had just left him. They were the Armarks they caused war and had cost many lives 14 thousands years ago... and they had invaded his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

_Loki sighed as he put down the book which was resting in his hands. He had already read this book; granted it had been seven hundred years ago, but his mind still apparently remembered it enough for it to not be able to hold his attention for long. This was becoming a more frequently frustrating problem. As a child he never thought that it would be, the Asgardian library had thousands of books on magic and history and any other subject he wanted to sink his teeth into. It almost didn't seem possible to have read them all._

_Loki glanced out of the library windows and peered down at the golden kingdom. Soon it would be Thor's. Thor would be crowned in three months time. Part of him was still angry about it. Since birth Odin had told them time and time again that either of them could be king but in the end had decided to give Thor the crown, against all common logic._

_Loki shook his head, trying to clear away the negative thoughts. That was why he decided to come to the library in the first place; to stop thinking about his anger. The Library had always been his place of refuge. Even though the library was open to all of Asgard, he was the only one who visited it frequently. This was mainly because everyone else in Asgard valued physical prowess rather than knowledge. Thor usually didn't allow him to stay very long though. If Loki stayed more than a few hours than Thor would normally pull him out the library saying that he shouldn't spend all his life in a stuffy library. It didn't seem to matter to Thor that he liked the library and the silence or that he wasn't interested in sparring, which was what Thor generally pulled him away to do. Loki preferred to work out his mind compared to his body, but no one else seemed to understand. They all thought that the magic he used in battle was cheating._

_Loki shook his head again. The library was his place away from Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three - it was his refuge. Loki got off the comfortable leather armchair and made his way over to the nearest bookshelf, it like all the others in the library were ornately carved from a type of dark wood. He briefly scanned the titles only to find that he had read all of them -some of them more than once._

_Asgard needed to get more books, maybe he would convince father to let him visit another world and bring back enough books to last for another hundred years. He wasn't sure his father would allow it though. He, like everyone else in the realm was not fond of Loki learning and doing magic instead of learning how to fight better. Loki let out a frustrated sigh, the boredom was almost too much to bear._

_He still had a few options of things to do to whittle the afternoon away. He could find Thor and the two of them could spar, though that did not sound any better than staring at the spines of the books. He could think of a prank to pull... that one held some merit. Loki started thinking about what prank he could pull on his brother, when something caught his eye, a sort of glinting. Loki frowned for a moment, he knew this library; no matter what time of day it was it was unusual for there to be glint like that in the library. Loki found himself following the flash of light almost unconsciously, as he did so he wondered what it was that making the unusual flash of light. Loki made his way from the lower level of the library up the equally ornately curved dark wooden stairs to the second level of the library. Loki made his way past shelf after shelf of familiar books. He had just come to the conclusion that his brother had probably misplaced a coin in the library the last time he had been there when he came upon an unfamiliar sight. It was a bookshelf. But,unlike all the other bookshelves the design of the shelf was simple, every line of it was straight, though strangely now that he was up close he could no longer see where the glint was coming from._

_He frowned in confusion. He had been to the library more than any other place in the castle, but he had never seen this bookshelf before. Loki was extremely curiously now. Right in front of him lay books bursting with new knowledge. He was hungry for more knowledge, for new knowledge. It made his fingers itch in anticipation. Loki nearly touched one of the books before he saw the symbol on the side of the bookcase. It was two crescent moons twisted together. There was something about that symbol that was familiar to him...but he couldn't remember it. Loki frowned harder in frustration; there was something about this book shelf that he should know. It was at the edge of his consciousness but he couldn't think of it. Loki's fingers were frozen inches from the book as he tried to remember what it was that he couldn't remember. The memory floated at the back of his mind like a falling leaf in an autumn breeze, so tantalizingly close but just out of reach._

_Loki shook his head. If it was important then he would remember wouldn't he? Loki plucked a green book out from the shelf, picking it simply because it was his favorite color, and color was the only thing differentiating the books from each other at the moment. Loki made his way to the nearest table and sunk into the leather seat with an uncontrollable grin. New books meant new knowledge and all of it was just waiting to be devoured by him word by word._

_He paused for a moment before opening the book. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him there was something wrong about this. A bookshelf did not just appear out of nowhere. There may be magic there, but that kind of magic unless done by himself could be trouble. Part of him argued that he should ask his mother about it, but another part feared that if he told her that she would not allow him to read the books. Besides it was only a book. How dangerous could a book in itself be? Didn't his mother always say that knowledge and magic was not intrinsically good or evil, but it was how the user used it that made it so? Throwing caution aside Loki opened the book before his mind could come up with any more reasons to not open it and froze._

_There were what seemed to be splotches of ink in the book, but upon closer inspection Loki could see they were moving across the pages. It was like a million dots lived in the book; as soon as the book opened they starting lifting off the page trying to get out._

_Loki immediately slammed the book shut, heart racing. Loki was about to take in a deep breath of relief when he felt something touch the skin of his wrist. He looked just in time to see the speck of darkness burrow its way under his skin. It was then that the information revealed itself to the panicking prince. The speck of darkness was called an Armark. The Armarks were parasitic creatures that feed on aggression, anger, and similar emotions. According to a history book he read once he recalled that almost, 14,000 years ago they had caused many wars between the worlds, before the worlds found out what was causing them and imprisoned them. Though not one of the books he had read had said that they had been imprisoned inside a book._

_It was also at that moment that Loki remembered the tale of the vanishing shelf. It was said to contain some of the world's greatest evils. To keep the worlds safe it moved from place to place , never staying anywhere for too long. because there were people who sought after the items , even after all this time. Apparently, it was completely unpredictable where it would end up next; such was the nature of the spell placed on it._

_Of course Loki didn't care much for the historical side of things at the moment because one of them had just burrowed into his skin and he could feel it going through his veins! A parasite! There was a parasite inside of him! He felt it begin to crawl through the veins in his arms with a growing sense of dread. Armarks from the books he had read feed off aggression related emotions and forced the brain to produce more of the emotions to feed it. The Armarks tended to lead to extremely aggressive and angry people. Was that going to happen to him? No one was going to know that he had an Armark inside of him. No one was going to save him!_

_Loki felt it twitch in his chest, and screamed. He screamed at the top of his lungs in a way that he hadn't since he was but a small child. Loki would have thought it was beneath him if it wasn't for the parasite inside of him. Maybe someone would hear him. Maybe someone would save him? Loki turned in a tight circle searching for someone anyone...the library was as usual..empty. The library was an enormous building, situated far from the hustle and bustle of normal Asgardian life. That thought did not make him feel any better as he felt the darkness seep into his mind,. Loki closed his eyes as the thing ravaged his emotions, feeding off of his anger._

_In seconds anger began coursing through him like a mighty river. Loki opened his eyes. He was no longer sure why he had been so afraid, the thing inside of him was making him better. All the hurt he had been feeling for no one appreciating him or ignoring his talents faded to anger. Anger was more powerful, less hurtful, and easier to direct. Loki smiled._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Avengers

Loki stared bonelessly up at the ceiling completely lacking all strength and motivation to move, but silently thanking the Norns that at least his headache was headache made sense now . The Armarks that had originally taken up residence in his head must have had the ability to spawn and had created more Armarks which had built up in his head until...they left, for some reason.

He was smart, he should be able to figure out the reason... but he just felt so tired, so drained. The anger that had fueled him for so long seemed to have burnt out leaving him an empty husk. The concrete was uncomfortable to lie on but Loki didn't have enough energy to move off of it or even shift into a sitting position. He was so tired, so very tired. Finally succumbing to sleep he closed his eyes, only for an incessant flashing light to catch his attention. It was the blinking light of his bombs. The bombs, he should do something about the bombs, but what? His brain was so muddled, so fuzzy and it was very hard to think. The bombs were bad….for some reason. Right, he blinked. bombs exploded, and that was bad. But then again, hadn't he been planning to use the bombs to destroy Midgard? Midgard, he was on Midgard. His thoughts were very disjointed and part of him was frustrated by that. He closed his eyes again to focus to gather himself again.

Thoughts about the bombs quickly bleed into thoughts about the Armarks as Loki remembered them leaving his head just minutes before. The Armarks...they overproduced the emotion of anger in him from what he remembered. So if they overproduce that emotion and made the host produce more of it to feed on them than that meant that his anger in the last few years had at least partially because of them , right? They had made him more angry, more irritable...but it was unclear to what extent. After everything he had done in the last two years he wondered how much of it had been him and how much had been the Armarks messing around with the emotions in his brain? How much of everything in last two years that he had done come from him and not from the creatures crawling around in his mind?

He was not without anger, he was well aware of that. Loki had been angry since he had been about 500 years old. However he had always been able to control his anger, keep it soft and simmering but always in control. Loki had always prided himself on his ability to keep his emotions in check. The Armark had made him more angry and volatile but had they made him do what he had done or would he have done them anyway if it hadn't been for the Armarks?

He wasn't sure and that was the worst part, he wasn't sure what he would have done if it hadn't been for the Armarks influence. It wasn't like possession or brainwashing like he had done to the midgardian archer where you did whatever the person told you. It had been him all the way through it.

The creatures may have made him angrier but they did not force him to do what he had done. It had been him, just angrier. Maybe it was because the Armarks did not give him the chance to calm down. Loki had always done things that he regretted when he was angry. Maybe not the actual act but doing it in a way that everyone would know it was him and he would get punished for it. The anger had always clouded his judgment, which was why even since he was 700 he had spent a lot of time trying to control it. Trying to keep it simmering and useful but not so large that it consumed everything he did. So maybe he wouldn't have done what he had done without the Armarks but it was also just as likely that he would have done it anyways. The thought popped into his mind. Did he regret it? Did he regret what he had done?

Loki shook his head , he didn't want to think about it. It hurt his brain and he was too tired, too drained to do so much thinking. He thought about closing his eyes and going to sleep right there on the hard concrete when the light caught his eyes again. They were keeping him awake - the lights. The bombs, his brain reminded him again as he realized that he had momentarily forgotten about them. They were set to go off in a few hours, Loki forced himself into a sitting position ignoring the way his body groaned at the movement and begged for sleep. He looked at the blinking lights and found he no longer felt the overwhelming urge to decimate Midgard. Whether it was because of his confusion or being drained of anger was unclear, but he knew he had to get rid of the bombs or go down with them.

He slowly made his way to his feet still feeling exhausted. He had a feeling why he was so exhausted, if Loki had to guess he would guess it was because anger was often accompanied by adrenaline. Living on adrenaline for five years straight would probably take a toll on the body , even one with his advanced physiology. He could feel his magic slowly inching outwards , sensing that something was wrong and working to try to fix began inching his way over to the bombs

It had taken months to build them, when it should have only taken him weeks. Then again the rage had been more intense in the past few weeks than it had been at any other time . But rage like that and headaches had made it really hard to think logically or clearly. He had spent 10 years learning how to build machines and while he wasn't as good as it as those who had spent their entire Asgardian lives he had been able to build these.

He slowly crossed the distance to the table, grabbing onto the table edge when his legs decided that they no longer wished to support him. He took a few deep breaths before trying to stand again, finding that his legs for the moment decided to hold him again. He was weak; unable to pinpoint when he had last eaten. The last couple of months were so filled with rage that he hadn't really been thinking about anything but the total destruction of Midgard, and that included eating. He turned his head a little and saw that it also translated to shaving and cutting his hair. He had a beard, he was not fond of beards he had never been fond of them and his hair was entirely too long. He would have to take care of that but first he keyed in the codes that would disarm the bombs into all of them.

So what was he going to do now? Go home beg for forgiveness? Unlikely , he did not belong with the Aesir nor the Jotuns. He didn't even belong on Midgard where he was currently residing, he belonged nowhere. He also wasn't even sure he wanted forgiveness but that thought would lead nowhere good so Loki shoved it down.

Loki was about to let himself fall to the ground again when he remembered the Armarks leaving the warehouse. They were parasites ; they desired hosts which meant that they had left seeking hosts. There were dozens of them and they would each find hosts. It would only be a hundred or so people at the moment, but given enough time they would do what they had to Loki, breed until they left the host brain. Loki was pretty sure that humans with their much softer bodies would probably die in the process rather than just becoming very exhausted. In fact the process could happen faster in humans then it had for him. Depending on the length of time the creatures needed to produce enough creatures, the entire realm could be overrun with the Armarks in a matter of years. The Armarks were unlikely to stop there though and they would likely expand until they covered all the nine realms and possibly beyond. As much as he wanted to blame Asgard for not teaching them about the shelf or the Armarks like they should have, he knew that this was his fault.

Loki had opened the book even though he had known something was off about it, but his damn curiosity had made him disregard his gut feeling. Because of him there were dozens of creatures in Midgard which if left alone would eventually destroy all the nine realms. Loki was not noble ; he had always looked out for himself before he looked out for anyone else. However, if nothing was done then everything would be taken over the Armarks in less than a thousand years. Since he had no desire to be taken over again by the creatures he was going to have to stop them. The question was, how?

 


	4. Chapter 4

Loki knew he was going to need help. He didn't like it, but he knew that he was going to need it if he was going to get through this in one piece. So far he could think of only two option, neither of which he liked the sound of very much. He could either get help from the ones who called themselves the Avengers and stay on Midgard, or he could go back to Asgard. Both of them were much more likely to throw him into prison then to listen to a single word he had to say, regardless of if he was telling the truth of not- this time, anyway. However after some quick mental deliberation he chose to stay on Midgard.

His choice to stay on Midgard was in part- not that he would ever admit it- because of Thor. Even through the Armark induced rage Loki could remember how Thor had tried to get him to stop, how he had repeatedly tried to make him see the reason which had been clouded so in his was possible that Thor wasn't as stupid and brash as he had been before he had been a host to The Armarks. Besides, Midgard would be the first planet taken over by the creatures if they weren't stopped in time. If they didn't believe him then it would be their planet which would perish, they would have to have a personal interest in it the way that Asgard wouldn't.

He knew that Avengers were unlikely to believe him. Not only had he tried to take over their precious realm, but no doubt Thor had told them all about his lies and trickery. If he wanted them to believe him then he would need some physical proof. He needed something that would show them that he was telling the truth, or at least something so that they would not throw him right away into the deepest prison they could find.

He sighed, running a hand through his overly long hair. He could think of only one such item which would work, however that item was currently located in the golden depths of Asgard. In order to retrieve the item he was going to have to sneak into Asgard - without Heimdall seeing. If Heimdall saw, he would get taken over by the Armarks again in an Asgardian prison cell.

He looked at the bombs, he couldn't leave them there. If someone else found them they could accidentally, or not so accidentally trigger them and blow up the town they were in a dozen times over. He considered where he could safely deposit the bombs. After a few moments Loki decided to take them with him. If someone did come across them on Asgard, unlike most Midgardians, they would at least have some basic knowledge of how to disarm them if they were accidentally triggered. They were fairly primitive bombs for Asgardian standards after all.

Thor now knew one of his ways between realms, but thankfully he knew of others. The way he had taken Thor was easier, although slightly more dangerous. He had kept the other to himself because he had known that as soon as he got revenge for his mother that he was going to have to get out of there as quickly as possible. He understood the importance of keeping his secrets secret, and a secret passageway between the realms was the secret of secrets. It seemed his forward planning was finally paying off. Though, at the time he had been thinking about getting into Asgard for the purpose of destroying it, or trying to become king again... It had really been more of a vague notion than any actual plan though.

He shrank the bombs down to a small enough size and checked them over to make sure that they were still disabled. He had put anti-tampering measures on them for safe keeping, however he was still unsure if his own magic counted as tampering. Checking the bombs, he found that none of them seemed to have reactivated themselves. He carefully put the bombs into a small bag he found among the pieces of failed bombs, and placed the bag in his pocket for easy transport. He took in a deep breath, he was going back to Asgard.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers or Thor.

As Loki moved over to a partially empty corner of the warehouse, He remembered why he had shown Thor the other way. The way he was going required teleporting or walking for days which would have been nigh impossible in their previous predicament. Teleportation required calm and focus. Without both you were likely to leave part of your body behind and die a very long and painful death. He had been in the finishing stages of mastering teleportation when the Armarks had taken him as a host. He was just glad that some part of him had realized in his state that he shouldn't be teleporting. If he hadn't it was very likely that he would have killed himself.

Loki took a deep breath as he calmed himself forcing himself to focus on the task at hand. It had been years since he had attempted to teleport and if he got it even slightly wrong he could leave behind anything from his head to his fingers. He focused and worked on maintaining his calm and then allowed his magic to flow through his body.

He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the right place. He had only even been there once before just to see if it worked, but he knew that this was the place. The place was a waterfall that was somewhere in the country in Midgard called Norway. The path had been made during the war so that warriors could move to Midgard more easily through the realms in a way that did not require as much energy as the Bifröst did. However after the war ended, the passageway was sealed. Loki had unsealed it, as it was much easier to unseal a passage way than to make one of your own.

There was no way a mortal could make the jump into the portal's entrance, especially since the water would force the curious mortal down onto the jagged rocks below. Which was why even though it been open for years, he was confident that it remained un-used.

Asgardians , while fierce in battle were not particularly good at remembering the past. The majority of Asgardians were more interested in battle then in learning things, even things about the past that would help them in the future. If Asgard had been a little more concerned about teaching about the past, then maybe Loki wouldn't have opened the book. Or maybe he would have anyways. He was always curious, but he was sure he would have been more careful about it had he have known what it was. Either way it didn't matter now. All that mattered was making his way into Asgard and getting what he needed.

He was going to have to teleport into the passage way since the jump was too much even for him. He kept his eyes open this time, the passage was narrow and he painfully aware that if he went too far to the left or right he could re-appear halfway in the cliff wall.

He took a deep breath and teleported again. When his body had reformed he looked around and found himself cloaked in total darkness. He brought his hand up in front of where he estimated his head to be, waving his hands to see if he could distinguish anything in the darkness. In response he lit a green light in his left hand, the small orb of green casting out just enough light to see by.

The first thing he examined in the green light was himself. All his limbs and important organs appeared to be intact and he was indeed in the passageway. It probably seemed to the non-magical eye as if there was just a Aesir sized hole in the soil, but Loki could feel the dirt being held back by magic. It was not his spell, he had just refuelled the spell which had been made to lapse.

He started walking forwards slowly, glancing over his shoulder briefly to see a ray of light which he assumed led back towards Midgard..The passage way was long; then again it stretched between two realms. As he walked he found sections where the tunnels magic were starting to fail, so he used some of his own magic to patch it up again, He was almost definite that he was going to have to use this passage way again sometime.

The darkness slowly started to recede until he no longer needed the green lights to pave his way. Loki paused before exiting the tunnel. He was going to have to make himself invisible so that Heimdall wouldn't see him coming. He focused on the spell of invisibility and let it take over his entire form. He looked down at where his arm should be to see that the spell seemed to be holding as he could not see any part of his body. However, he would still have to be careful not draw attention to himself. The slightest of noises, a single twig snapping, could possibly draw Heimdall's attention to him if today was lacking of excitement.

Thankfully, Loki had always been quick and quiet on his feet. He hadn't enjoyed hunting, but he always been remarkably good at it. Thor on the other hand couldn't be quiet to save his life, he thought with a smile that quickly faded off his face.

Thor hated Loki and Loki hated Thor... only without the rage it was hard to feel the hate, instead he just felt the sorrow that he didn't want to think about. He wished that he could bring back at least some of his anger. He felt almost naked without the anger to hide himself behind.

Loki stopped for a moment and he wondered if maybe he should have rested before coming to Asgard. Exhaustion was dragging at his bones, weighing down his every step, he felt terribly drained and the teleporting wasn't helping. Teleporting was one of the most exhausting forms of magic out there. The longer the distance, the more draining it would from the county of the United States of America to the country of Norway had been the most taxing magic he had done in quite some time.

He was in the woods, an achingly familiar forest, full of the familiar scent of trees and clean air and the chittering of animals which reminded him of his childhood so much that it hurt.. It was all So familiar, so very familiar but it was not one that he had frequented much as a child. This forest was hundreds of miles away from the centre of Asgard which was where the castle that he grown up in was. There were forests much closer to the city that he was much more acquainted with than this one. This forest was about a two weeks walk from the centre of Asgard. If he didn't want to spend two weeks walking there then he was going to have to teleport, again.

He was trying to teleport to one of the most constant- and safest- places in the whole castle, his room. As long as his perfectly placed spells held up his room it was undoubtedly still shielded. They may have tried to take some of the spells off, however the shielding spells on his room were the most complex he could find in all of the libraries books. It had a web of spells around it that would take even the most advance sorcerers years to take off and he was pretty sure that they would probably have better things to do. If he was right his room was probably sealed, but Loki already had a way around that. He had put a passage way from his room to Thor's when they were kids, so that he could more easily play pranks on Thor without any of the guards in the hall between their rooms seeing him. The little trick had helped him claim innocence for his pranks countless times.

They may have sealed his room, but he doubted that Thor would let anyone touch his room, even to search for spells that may lead somewhere else. The last time he had checked Thor was still on earth. He had heard that Thor had been helping The Avengers for the last couple of months while he had been building his bomb. That meant that Thor would most likely not be in his room and the only people he might run into were maids who would still probably be keeping dust from his things; he doubted they be giving his room such consideration. Normally thoughts like this would feel him with rage but he still wasn't able to be angry and instead he was just saddened.

He pushed down all of the feelings he couldn't cover in rage with a shake of his head. He had things he needed to do and he couldn't afford to be distracted, especially since he was about to teleport. Loki focused on Thor's room - or at least the Thor's room that he remembered. He hadn't actually been in Thor's room for at least five years, perhaps longer because he couldn't remember the last time he had been in Thor's room. Then again five years to him was only a few years to everyone else. Still he hoped he could remember it well enough to get an accurate picture in his head. He released his magic through his body and let himself teleport.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers or Thor.

Thor's room was truly atrocious, though thankfully it was void of any troublesome palace maids. Then again, Thor's room had always been a mess. Thor threw things around without a care as to where they landed. Loki had wondered briefly if maybe Thor had gotten neater since his time on Midgard. He had apparently grown nicer and somewhat smarter, but no, his room still had clothes, armour and even weapons strewn this way and that. Things were placed without any regard to where they would best look and the gold and red of the room was almost blinding. How could Thor stand it?

He supposed though that Thor didn't have to , since he was predominantly living in Midgard at the moment. He made his ways through the maze of things, doing his best not to step on any of the miscellaneous items between him and the passageway. Thor's room was larger than most, even containing a small corner dedicated to books and various other implements of education. Loki was almost certain that Thor had rarely even ventured into that part of his room. He picked up one of the books and saw that he appeared to be right since there was a heavy layer of dust on the top. The servants would have dusted the spines, but apparently didn't take the books out to be dusted properly. Loki gently put the poor book back on the shelf, taking a deep breath before he phased through the bookcase.

While the bookcase was solid, on the other side of the shelf was a hall that no one else knew about. The hall - like the passageway between -realms was also was in disrepair. Loki used his magic to strengthen the weakening spells as he went.

Loki was quickly becoming quite exhausted from all the magic that he was using. He wished that once he made his way to this room that he could rest, even for a short while. But he had to warn the Avengers before he could rest. There was no telling how long it would take the Armark to spread in the human population.

He made it to the end of the hall where he took another deep breath making himself unsolid again and walked through his own book shelf. Loki's own collection of books were a lot larger than Thor's had been, taking up almost all the space on his wall. In fact no one could see the walls that he had originally had because he kept putting bookshelves up and stealing more books from the library.

He tested the spells of the rooms and found that indeed someone had at least poked at the spells, but it was unclear how long they had focused on them before they decided against trying to undo them. His room was even shielded against Heimdall's gaze. It had been shielded from the gatekeepers gaze since he was a child. He had not liked the idea of someone being able to look at him whenever they wanted. When queried His mother had claimed it was purely for his protection and that Heimdall would never use it for anything other than that; he obviously hadn't believed her. He looked longingly at his bed with the dark green comforter and the matching dark green bed curtains, and could almost feel his bones drag. He could just about imagine how heavenly it would be to lay his weary head down, he longed for the respite but managed to turn away from it.

He made his way to a corner of his room. Honestly, he couldn't remember if he had left the book in here or it was still in the library. Loki began searching with baited breath, the faster he retrieved the book the faster he could get out of Asgard. He really hoped it was in his room and not in the library. It was telling of how concerned with history Asgard was when something like the Armarks only appeared in about 7 books that he had read. Most of them were just quick summaries that assumed the reader already knew about their existence. He wasn't sure if the book that told the most about them was in his personal library or not.

Loki was glad that he was not as sloppy as his brother- Thor he corrected himself quickly, wondering where that thought had come from. Thor wasn't his brother, they were not related by blood, nor were they even the same race.

His eyes focused on the spines of his many books, the books were alphabetized by subject and title making the search process simpler. He made his way to the history section on his wall and scanned the titles before he came upon the desired book. Loki counted himself lucky that he did in fact have the book in his own library. He pulled the book out of his shelf and looked at it. The cover was plain except for the title on the spine which was written in silver. Loki shrunk it and put in the same bag that the bombs were contained in.

He made his way to his magic section of books, shrunk them all down and put them in the bag as well. He wasn't sure if he was ever coming back to his room and as such he wanted to take everything with him that he might need or want in the future. He put his potions and all his magic related objects into a box that would keep them magically suspended. Hopefully this would be able to stop the bottles from breaking, even if he had to run or fight. He shrunk the box down along with a few extra outfits from his closet and put them into his bag as well. He had worn the same outfit for the nearly 5 years. Part of him wanted to change immediately, but he was wary of the fact that he could be found out at any time even though he had been careful.

He hovered over his desk for a moment, thinking about what he wanted to keep and what he could leave behind. The first item was easy as it was a book of personal spells but Loki paused at some of his more sentimental items. They had no magic or relevance and only served to remind him of better times. Part of him wanted to burn the items and forget the moments, since they would probably only bring pain, but some other part of him shrunk them down and put them into the bag. He didn't want to examine the reason behind his actions so he pushed it to the back of his mind and focused on what else he was going to take with him.

He looked over at the bed again, a large part of him wanted to take his bed with him. Unfortunately making it small enough to go in the bag would be too taxing especially after expending so much magic already. As it was he was concerned the he wasn't going to have the energy he needed to teleport back where he needed to go. So he left the bed and his all of his other larger items.

He went over to where his weapons were kept and was in the process of shrinking several of them to fit into his bag when he heard a sound from outside his room. Loki froze mid-movement. The hall outside of his room was not well frequented. The only rooms that were in the hallway was his own and Thor's quarters. It was almost definitely not Thor and it was unlikely that anyone had been able to trace him.

Perhaps he hadn't been as careful as he thought. However it was no matter now. Silently he slipped into the passage. Focusing on the matter at hand Loki once again found himself back in the forest moments later. He was hundreds of miles away from the centre of Asgard now and was only a few hundred meters from the passageway. He had the book, now all he had to do was convince The Avengers that this was not some sort of plot or game. He had a feeling that it would not go well.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Avengers or Thor

After stopping briefly at his old headquarters to read the book, Loki went directly to the Avengers Tower. Loki had hadn't seen the tower in person since he had thrown the owner out of its topmost window. With a flash of green light he appeared in the tower, fully aware that Iron Man, or so the media called him would probably be alerted to his presence- or would have if he hadn't appeared right in front of the man.

The shorter man stood stock still, a glass of some sort of alcohol halfway to his mouth. Neither men moved, but Loki could feel as the man turned his piercing gaze on him. The effect was so strange that Loki wondered if maybe he had somehow managed to freeze time as well. It was something he had attempted before, but he had never had been successful in it, even his mother had deemed it nigh impossible. No he didn't want to think about her, not now.

The one called Iron Man moved first, splaying his arms out in front of him before pulling them back to his body. The glass of alcohol was thrown at Loki's feet, droplets of the liquid landed on his shoes as the glass broke with a crash. A panel in the wall moved aside and his armour came at him from some distance wrapping the mortal in the red armour.

Loki sighed. He was afraid something like this would happen. It was why he tried to think of a better way to do this. He had even briefly considered manipulating the Avengers into helping him without ever revealing his involvement. But ultimately it would have taken too long. There was no telling how quickly the Armarks would spread on Midgard before going further.

Unfortunately, that meant if he wanted to stop them he was going to have to tell them the truth. It had been a long time since he had told anyone the whole truth. Well, maybe he wouldn't tell them the whole truth, but more of the truth than he was completely comfortable with.

"I'm not here to cause harm," Loki put his hands out in front of him to show he was unarmed. Although he wasn't surprised when the Iron Man's posture didn't change in the slightest.

"Yeah, like I'm believing that," Stark scoffed. This was probably wise since he did have several bombs in his pocket, defused bombs, but still bombs none the less.

"I know you have no reason to believe me."

"You damn right I don't!" Tony yelled and Loki nodded because that shout was probably sufficient enough to get Thor's attention, if the bodiless being hadn't already alerted the other Avengers. Even though he didn't want Thor's help he knew that he would need it if they were to succeed.

A little more ire rose inside of him at the thought. He hated needing anyone else; he liked to think he was always self-sufficient. But the fact of the matter was he couldn't stop the Armark without someone's help and the thought did not sit well with him. Loki decided to stop talking and let the Man of Iron shout whatever he wanted until Thor 's arrival. The man's faceplate came up after a moment.

However the one called Iron Man didn't yell, just looked him over suspiciously like he could deduce his motives simply through observation. Loki couldn't help the condescending smile that split his face at that, it was just so cute. He knew the smile wouldn't help his cause, but he couldn't seem to help himself.

He got a glare back from the one called Iron Man which let him know exactly how much he appreciated the gesture. He heard the thundering of footsteps coming from behind him , and readied himself to deal with the rest of the Avengers and Thor.

Loki purposely kept his features neutral as he turned around. Eyes flicking across each face he saw many eyes narrow in hatred at the sight of him, before this would have made him happy; now he was just confused. Loki though, was nothing if not good at masking how he really felt. Thor's eyes took him in suspiciously.

"Why are you here?" Loki merely smiled, as if Thors tone wasn't slightly...he wasn't even sure what it was that his tone was doing to him, but he didn't like it.

"Why hello to you too Thor." he said in response his coated liberally with sarcasm.

"Have you come to make more wars?" Thor asked straight out ignoring Loki's games.

There was one thing that Loki did like about Thor and that was he hardly ever beat around the bush. Loki doubted that the oaf was smart enough to do so. Rage started bubbling to the surface again wrapping itself around Loki. One thing that was not any different was Loki's rage surrounding Thor, nor his jealousy that Thor had always gotten everything Loki had wanted . It was why he hated having to ask for his and the rest of the Avengers help. There was still a big part of him that wished to teleport away, find a distant star from which to watch the entire galaxy be taken by the Armarks while he watched with a tub of Midgardian popcorn. Though he wasn't sure if he had had some or had just heard of it from somewhere.

Surely though, at some point they'd be able to spread far enough to reach him, no matter where he hid. And Loki did not want to repeat the experience of being a host to the Armark again...even if that meant getting help from Thor and his new Midgardian friends.

"No, I'm here to stop the deaths of many." he wasn't surprised that no one seemed to believe him or even seemed all that worried about the threat he had hinted at; he was however annoyed.

Now that he was not being consumed by anger, he was stronger. Magic required an intense mental process and if you were too angry, you couldn't focus enough to do some spells like teleportation and other ones. If he hadn't been so angry, he could have fought the Avengers better. However, he wondered that if he had been calm enough to use his powers to their fullest if he would have still wanted to subjugate a whole planet.

None of that would be very helpful though in getting the Midgardians and Thor's help... he hated it though. There was still a strong voice inside of him that was screaming to leave them to their fate and to hide on some distant moon and hope that the Armark didn't reach him, but he did not pay attention to the voice. He was not a fool to believe that even if he ran that they would not reach him eventually. He also wasn't so sure that if he had that he wanted the Armarks to annihilate so many.

"I know you are hesitant to trust me." Loki started "but I am not here to cause harm." he said, looking each of them in the eye.

Not one of their expressions wavered and Loki found himself sighing. He understood why they would be distrustful due to their past, but it was frustrating that just when he decided to be honest and helpful to the human race, rather than showing appreciation they were all still glaring at him. Loki sighed again and figured that he should probably explain because he had no idea how long it would take for the Armark to go through the human body. It could be a week or even years like it had been with him. He still wished that there was another way but there wasn't, not without going to Asgard. He shuddered at the thought.

"Thor do you remember The Armarks?" he asked the blond directly even though he was confident that Thor had no idea what they were.

He was proved right when Thor shook his head. While he was not surprised, Loki was irritated, Thor's lack of knowledge was going to make everything so much more complicated. He wished that Asgardians were forced to go school half as long as he had been forced to hone his battle skills even when he didn't want to as a child. Maybe then they wouldn't be so stupid. He took in a deep breath, it would no good to get himself riled up on something he had known for ages and it would not aid him in getting the Avengers to realize the threat.

"The Armark are a parasitic species. They feed on anger, jealousy and other similar emotions in the host. They reside in the host's brain and are able to make the brain manufacture more of the emotions that they need to feed on." Loki said in the most detached and professional voice he could, even throwing in a casual wave of his hand.

He wondered if maybe they would just believe it without him having to admit that he had been a host. It was not something he was terribly fond of admitting and he also knew that the Avengers weren't likely to believe that part of the story either.

"They were rampant about 14,000 years ago in another galaxy." He said, reciting almost word-for-word what he had read in the book. He had always been a quick reader, though there wasn't much to read, so it really hadn't taken all that long. Still, his knowledge on the subject was far greater than the fuzzy knowledge he had had before.

It was probably why most Asgardians weren't taught about them. Most of the damage had been done to another galaxy and not their own, but still something that powerful should always be taught to warn children of the dangers. The nine realms did react once it started showing up in their galaxy, finally doing something about it when their lives became endangered. He wondered if maybe they didn't teach it because they were ashamed of the fact they hadn't acted until it had reached their galaxy, that they had just allowed the other galaxies to destroy each other to near extinction. There was nothing in the book about that. In fact there were only a few pages on the Armarks at all, but for something that had nearly killed a whole galaxy a person would think there would be more about it.

He knew better than to put his supposition in the verbal description. Thor would take offense and while normally he would say anything to rile his Thor up, Loki needed his help he had to leave his suspicions out of it.

"When people are hosts to the Armarks they become irrational, anger, filled beings until either the Armarks leave or the hosts dies, depending on each individual host's physiology." That was another thing he found out from reading the book. His suspicions that most midgardians would die instead of being released seemed even more likely now, although he still had no definite proof.

"What is the point of this?" Thor interrupted and Loki fought the urge to roll his eyes. Thor had never been able to stand history. If it hadn't been a battle and it hadn't happened in his lifetime Thor didn't know of it.

"I'm getting there." Loki snapped, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice.

"As I was saying, the Armarks caused war and the people in the other galaxy died in droves until Asgard and some of the other nine realms came to help them." Loki thought he phrased that well. He made it sound like Asgard were the saviours and not the people who deliberately turned a blind eye because it wasn't in their galaxy yet. Then again, it was just a suspicion. Maybe Asgard hadn't known and as soon as they found they had swooped into save them. He prefered his version better. Thor radiated pride in his ancestors and Loki fought off the urge to tell him his version.

"They imprisoned the Armarks in a book and put in on a shelf that moves on its own accord."

"I don't get why you are telling us this if the Armark are imprisoned." Thor said stupidly and this time Loki couldn't fight the urge to roll his eyes.

"Obviously, if I am telling you this, it means that they are no longer imprisoned." Loki said his voice dripping with sarcasm.

He could only take so much of Thor's idiocy at a time; he was surprised that the other Avengers were able to handle Thor's idiocy for so long.

"Did you let them out?" Thor growled taking a threatening step forwards.

Loki gulped and nearly took a step backwards before he stopped , technically, he had but it had not been on purpose. However, admitting to his mistakes would make him seem weak and they probably wouldn't believe him anyways. Perhaps, he should say that he thought he could control them but then he couldn't. They already saw him as a villain, the sort of person who would do that kind of thing. Was he the sort of person who would do that kind of thing? He didn't even know. He still wasn't sure what he would have done in past few years if he hadn't been a host to the Armark.

"Yes." Loki said simply, choosing not to add that he hadn't known what they were until after he had opened the book. Looking around at their furious expressions he decided he needed something else to embellish his lie "I thought that I could control them, but I was wrong."

"So you just let them out?!" Thor yelled.

He had let one out, which had taken him as host and had multiplied into dozens which had then left his head. Loki remembered the one Armark burrowing under his skin and repressed a shudder. He did not want to reveal the whole truth, especially not at the moment; not when he had just come up with a better lie.

"Only a hundred or so."

"If they were kept on a moving shelf, how did you find them?" The man or iron asked.

Stark still looked suspicious of him and Loki mentally kicked himself for adding that particular titbit of information. Of course at the time he had been planning on telling them the truth, until he found a lie that he liked better.

"I'm good at finding things like that." was all that Loki said.

He was glad he hadn't mentioned that the shelf moved every couple of minutes. The event in question was hazy at best but he vaguely remembered that the shelf refused to vanish without the book.

"But since it hasn't gone the way I would have liked, I would like your assistance in making the creatures go back."

"Why? You were all for killing humans before" Stark demanded.

"Yes, when I was killing them for my purposes; not these creatures for their own." Loki said, still unsure if he would have gone on his Midgardian rampage if not for the Armarks. Still they appeared to believe him, even if they still distrusted him. If he had told them the truth he was pretty sure they would have thrown him in the nearest prison cell, believing that he made the Armarks up as some kind of scapegoat.

Thor looked beyond angry, though Loki was pretty sure that Thor believed his story. The Black Widow was nigh impossible to read so he wasn't really sure what she was thinking. Hawkeye glared at him with blatant rage, but he was pretty sure that Hawkeye believed his story.

However it was the frail alter-ego of the beast so called Hulk and the Man of Iron that made Loki uncertain. Both were looking at him trying to analyse him in a way that suggested that maybe they hadn't made up their mind about him yet.

"So why come to us?" Stark asked, eyes narrowed.

"Because I was on Midgard when I released them." after months of splitting headaches they had left his brain. "So it is Midgard that will be harmed if you cannot capture or destroy them." The glares of both Thor and Hawkeye increased and even the man of iron had a slightly harder edge to him. He did not care if they hated him as long as they believed him and helped him capture the Armarks. He would not be taken as host again.

"Where did you "release" them?" the man of iron asked sharply.

Loki had to think hard. His brain had been overrun with the Armarks at the time. All he had been was rage and anger. So furious was his anger, that he had been about to blow up and kill the entire planet, which was probably another thing that he should gloss over. Where had he been? Everything in that time period was kind of fuzzy. His brain hadn't been working very well with all the rage, which was why it taken him months to complete the bombs rather than the days or weeks it normally would have. He had been silent for a long moment and suspicion was growing in the eyes of everyone in the room. Where had he been? From his mind he dredged up images of the quaint area in which he had been residing, till he remembered the name of the city.

"Pleasant Grove, Idaho." He recited confidently.

It had been a small town that had been based around a factory of some sort. The factory had gone bankrupt before his stay and he had moved some time later that was all he knew about it though, everything about his time in that town was shrouded in a red mist of anger. It was then that Loki felt the sharp pangs of hunger from the complete lack of nutrients that was making his stomach hurt. Thinking back he realized that he probably hadn't eaten in at least a few months. He ignored the pain, he'd eat soon enough anyway.

"Why there?" Stark inquired and Loki found himself hating the mortal for being so curious, especially when the answer was 'That is where the Armarks tore their way out of my head.' However his face was calm and he let none of his anger shine through his mask.

"It seemed as good as any place." Loki lied easily, the words flowing off his tongue like water.

"So rather than a large city, you unleashed it in a small one?" The hulk other half asked, his voice was slightly less hostile and more curious like he was still trying to understand his actions. Yes, when he put that way it sounded like a terribly thought out plan. Although in reality it hadn't been a plan at all, but he had to make it seem like a better plan.

"Easier to observe the results without too many variables." Loki said.

The man of iron and the human side of the hulk exchanged glances and he found he didn't like that. They had to believe him or else they might figure out the truth.

"So do you want to keep talking about this or do you actually want to stop them before they start killing your people?" Loki asking partly hoping to stop the glances, that threatened his plan and also to stop them before the Armarks were allowed to spread even more. He wasn't sure how quickly they would spread amongst humans rather than Asgardians or Jotuns, but he had a feeling it wouldn't take the years it had with him.

"Why do you want to stop this?" Stark probed again, weary curiosity plain in his expression.

Loki rolled his eyes.

"I already explained this. I miscalculated and if I'm going to destroy Midgard it will not be because of a mistake. It will be because I want to destroy it and my plan will go smoothly." He was pretty sure the plans with the bomb would have gone smoothly and that had been a good plan. It still would be if ever decided that he wanted to destroy Midgard again. The Armarks however was not a good plan. Even if destroying Midgard had been his purpose, eventually they would spread across the whole galaxy.

"So do you want to go save the world? Or do you want to give them time to multiply?" They looked confused at that point and Loki realized he hadn't told them that part.

"The creatures reproduce in the host as they feed, eventually making more of the creatures as they go. Those of lower physiological often die when the Armarks leave them, especially when the anger isn't enough for all the Armarks to feed on. The hosts are more prone to violence than they would be without the creatures in them." He had learnt that from the book too. However it was still unclear how much of the person who was taken as hosts actions were their own or due solely to the Armarks inside them.

"So we should find them, no? Before they spread?" Loki asked slightly impatiently, arms spread out.

"Yeah, we'll clean up your mess," Hawkeye said gruffly, looking around at the others.

Thor nodded but still looked furious. The other half of the hulk and the man of iron still looked slightly suspicious, but nodded as did the Black Widow. Loki nodded, relieved that they were going to help him even if it was all based on a lie. But he knew that some lies were easier to swallow than the truth.

"I cannot teleport you all there and I doubt some of you would want me to anyways. But I hope you will be there soon?" Loki addressed Stark, aware that out of all of the avengers he would be the fastest.

"We'll be there," The man of iron responded and Loki nodded again.

"I'll be waiting," Loki said before he teleported away.

 


	8. Chapter 8

He was in a place called Sal's diner, shovelling food that hardly qualified as such into his waiting mouth. If he wasn't so hungry he doubted that he'd stoop to such culinary lows but he was literally starving. As far as he could tell He hadn't eaten in months and as unappetizing as the food looked he couldn't stop himself from eating it as quickly as he could, even as he told himself he probably should slow down a bit.

The decor was no more appealing than the food as the booths were patched in places with duct tape. There were a variety of paintings on the walls none of which went with the rest and must have been picked out by a blind person. Loki did his best not to look at them but looking at his food was hardly any better. He was pretty sure the only reason the place was still in business was because of the limited choices for food in the small town.

The only upside of this establishment was the table manners. He found the Midgardian way of eating food to be a lot more sophisticated than the Aesir way. The Aesir were always making large messes and eating with their fingers. It was one of the few things about Midgard that he truly liked. The food, though atrocious, was still filling and already he could feel it restoring some of his depleted energy.

Loki looked at the clock again and found that only 30 minutes had gone by leaving him already halfway through the variety of food that he had ordered. He wasn't too worried about the others interrupting, even if the humans and Thor travelled very fast they wouldn't be there for at least an hour.

Loki frowned as he felt eyes on him and he searched the dinner for anyone looking his way, only to lock eyes with the waitress that had served him. She was a rather rotund, red haired women, who was watching him with a piercing bird-like stare.

Loki frowned in thought, weighing out the reasons as to why the women would be staring at him. He had a glamor on which made him not look like himself so it could not have been from recognition. It was a necessary evil since his face had been plastered everywhere after his attempted takeover Midgard. He looked down at himself to make sure that his glamor hadn't slipped but no, his ripped jeans and red checked shirt still covered his tanned body. So she wasn't staring at him because she knew who he was. Why was she staring then? Was she one of them? Actually she probably was; there wasn't exactly a large population in the town. There had been dozens of Armarks, the likelihood of the lady in front of him being a host was high. He wondered if humans would react faster to the effects of the Armarks or if the strange behaviour was common considering the state of the diner?

It had only been a few weeks after becoming a host that he had formulated his plan to make sure that Thor wasn't crowned but he was still unsure if they had been his own true actions. He knew that he had been angry about Thor's coronation even before the Armarks had taken him over. But He didn't want to think of that.

If she was a host how was he going to capture her? Killing her would do no good; the creature would just find another host and he was sure the Avengers would not appreciate the culling of otherwise innocent lives. Loki instead just kept watching the rotund waitress as she looked at him. His thoughts raced as he tried to think of the best way to lure the Armarks to him. Loki had no idea how to get them out of the hosts or even if there was a way. If they ended up having to kill them he knew that he would be in a lot of trouble. So he had to find some way to get the Armarks out without harming the host. All in all this was shaping up to be quite the difficult venture.

Loki let his thoughts wander, not noticing the passing of time until he heard Thor's mighty voice calling his name. Seriously, Thor's voice was so loud it could be heard in any battle. There had been a time when he was glad to hear the low rumble of his brother's shouts, the only true confirmation that he was still alive in the midst of battle.

Loki buried that thought in the depths of his mind. That had been a long time ago. Thor surely felt nothing but contempt for him after all that had happened. Even if he wanted to, and he wasn't sure he did, he doubted they could ever go back to being the brothers that they were so long ago.

He stood up from his meal and cast a spell to make it look as if he had left some money on the table before quietly making his way out of the horrid establishment. Loki's eyes narrowed when he couldn't see any of the other Avengers, only Thor, who was facing away from him and yelling at the top of his lungs. Loki gritted his teeth. What was Thor trying to do? Did he not tell them how urgent it was? Part of him wanted to teleport in front of Thor to surprise him, it would be a just punishment for failing to bring the rest of team along. But teleporting took a lot of energy and using it needlessly when they might need to the capture the Armarks was out of the question, especially when he was still so drained. Having food had helped, but sleep was what his body craved. He wondered why only Thor was there. Did they not believe his warning? Did they just send Thor ahead? Loki took off the glamor as he strode to Thor and turned him around forcefully.

"I am here you big buffoon. Where are the others?" he demanded. Thor looked at him like he was trying to figure him out and Loki rolled his eyes.

"The others, where are they?" he repeated. He'd rather not deal with Thor at all, and dealing only with Thor was almost as bad as being controlled by the Armarks..

"There was an attack on New York as we were getting ready to leave. The others had to stay behind."

Loki glowered.

Maybe whatever force attacking New York would end up killing a few people on earth, but given enough time all people on earth and all people of lower physiology would die if they didn't stop the Armarks.

"Did you attack us?" Thor's voice was a low rumble of distrust.

Loki shook his head exasperated.

"They couldn't have sent the scientist or even the man of iron? At least their questions wouldn't be so idiotic?" Loki asked annoyed, refusing to answer Thor's question. He did not want to speak to Thor at all, but he had to know what was going on.

"Loki did you?"

"No! I did not! I already told you my plan was the Armarks, which didn't go my way. Now you people better help me capture them or you will allow the people in this town to die!" Loki said and turned away only for Thor to turn him back around, which caused Loki's scowl to turn positively venomous.

"Let me tell you this just once, don't touch me Thor," he hissed through his teeth.

Thor handed him some sort of metal tablet, with the man of iron's face finely etched on it. It was only after a moment that Loki registered the small twitches of the muscles in the man's face, that he realised it was a live feed. Stark wasn't looking at him, in fact he looked like he was in the middle of battle but the man of iron still began to speak.

"So what have you found out?" The man of iron asked.

Loki supposed he could have tried to figure something out rather than eating until he was fit to burst. Particularly since he hadn't come up with anything solid, just vague ideas that he didn't want to voice until he more confident. He decided to go with a partial truth as they were his favourite kind and the easiest to remember.

"Yes, because you would take my word at face value," Loki said dryly.

He knew that if he had done any research without them it was unlikely that they would believe him. To his credit, Stark didn't deny it and instead headed straight to business.

"How many of them did you say there were?"

It was hard to know exactly, since the pain of them leaving his head had made it hard to see, let alone count each individual Armark, but he had a rough estimate.

"About a hundred or so."

"Is there any way to detect them? Like a scan or anything?"

No one in Asgard had known he had them in him he thought bitterly. Then again, they hadn't really checked, things had happened rapidly. He shook his head he didn't want to think of such things.

"Not as far as I know." Loki simply answered.

"You didn't do a lot of research before you released them did you?" Tony said and Loki forced himself to smirk in response just in case the iron man looked.

Loki had done no research at all. He just happened to know what they were once he had seen them, which had only been right before one had infiltrated him and by then it had been too late. However, he wanted to make it look like nothing bothered him.

"Look the fact is we can't make it until we stop this newest threat, so you're going to have to start without us. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"And pray tell why is Thor here?" he asked even though he was pretty sure he knew.

"He's there to babysit you. Make sure you don't cause any trouble, so be good little kids and place nice," the man said with a smirk as the screen went dark. He found himself wanting to kill the metal man, Thor and leave the planet to its doom all at once. Loki took a deep breath in and out and reminded himself what he was trying to stop.

"Fantastic, I guess we should begin then." Loki said.


	9. Chapter 9

Loki took in Thor's clothes- or rather his battle armor, complete with his flowing red cape. Loki knew something had to be done about Thor's clothes, which were making him stick out like a sore thumb. Any moment now someone was going to see Thor and then they would be surrounded by all his adoring fans. It was the same in every realm it seemed. It would be very hard to find anything surrounded by Thor's fans.

"I'm putting an illusion on you," Loki said, not asking for permission.

He gave a quick glance up and down the small street and finding no one Loki cast the spell. One second the blond warrior was standing there; the next, while still looking like himself, Thor was wearing Midgardian clothing similar to that Loki was wearing and Thor's long blond hair appeared to be much shorter. Loki had just barely resisted the urge to put moles all over Thor's face or any other disfiguring things, knowing that if he did the two of them would argue, and Loki wanted as little conversation between the two of them as there could be seeing as they were the only two people there.

Thor looked down at himself. Loki expected him to argue anyways, as Thor had never been fond of glamors, on himself or on Loki. Surprisingly, however, he just looked up  and nodded.

"How do you suppose we find them?" Thor asked his brother, still looking at him with distrust.

Loki bit off the insult to Thor's intelligence that was at the tip of his tongue and simply turned away, trying to think. It was going to be quite the endeavor to find which people were the Armark's new hosts. Loki was fairly certain that there was no outward sign of the Armark's presence, at least no obvious ones or else he hoped someone might have noticed with him. It may come to rounding up the entire town, but Loki had to try to find a way to distinguish between the people and hosts before bowing to such extremes." but he had to try to find some way to distinguish the two from each other before they bowed to such extremes.

He looked up and down the main street again. At least the town was small, so if they ended up having to round up the entire town, the effort would not be as difficult as it would be if they were in a larger city, such as New York. Loki took in a sharp gasp of air when he thought of how much more difficult this would be had he released The Armarks in a populated city like New York. If the release had happened during his time in New York, would there even have been a chance at finding all of them? Loki shook his head, clearing his thoughts. He had not unleashed them in New York. He had unleashed them in this much smaller and much more manageable town, thank the All-father. Loki noticed Thor looking at him out of the corner of his eye. The blond had probably heard the gasp. He mentally warned himself to be more careful and control himself better.

"Let's look around," Loki suggested, not having a better idea at the moment.

Thor nodded and the two of them started walking down the small street. The entirety of the small town's main street was about a dozen shops set over roughly three blocks. There wasn't even a stop-light anywhere in sight. The entire town had a quaint feeling to it that Loki wasn't fond of. After a few steps the two of them were walking in sync with each other. After thousands of years together, it took no effort on their part. They had walked for about a block and a half when Loki stopped suddenly, causing Thor to halt beside him. They were in front of a small grocery store, but Loki could see people inside of it. People were what he needed to see. Loki went in and started looking around the shop at the people, analysing each one he found. An adolescent, he appeared to be adding more cans to the shelves from a box of cans.

Loki paused for a second before he moving on. He went to the next aisle and stopped as he saw a boy- a small boy that barely came to his waist. The boy was young, but Loki wasn't sure how young he was as Loki wasn't sure how Midgardian ages compared to AEsir years," The boy's face was full of freckles which dotted his cherub cheeks. The boy was near multiple candy items and he had his hand wrapped around a candy bar.

The boy turned around to face him. Loki frowned as he noticed that the way the boy was staring at him was the same as the waitress from the diner. Loki took a step to his right and the boy's gaze followed him, as well as when he took some more steps backward. It was unnerving the way the boy was staring at him, and Loki felt his skin crawl as he became even more convinced that the staring probably meant that the child had a host inside of him. Unsettled, Loki made his way to the nearest aisle that didn't contain the child.

A child. He had unleashed this horror on a child. Loki didn't want to think about that, didn't want to think about what the child could possibly become because of him if he didn't stop it. Hurriedly he walked away from the aisle. He was so distracted that he nearly ran straight into Thor. Thor must have gotten separated from him, Loki thought distantly as he made sure his face was a mask and not a single emotion he was feeling could be seen.

"Loki, I asked the person in front of the store if he has seen any Armarks. He said no. I think he thought me mad," Thor added after a moment,] ignorant of Loki's concerns.

"That's because you are," Loki said, unable to stop the jab that had Thor glaring at him in response. Damn, hanging around Thor wasn't helping with his resolution. He just had to be stronger.

"They know nothing about Aramark's. If they are yet to see something amiss then the very idea would seem insane to them," Loki amended, though he wasn't exactly sure why.

Loki started walking before Thor could say anything. He caught a glimpse of the small boy and quickened his pace. He walked until Loki made his way out of the store. He wanted to sigh in relief from no longer being in the same place as the small boy, but stopped himself from doing so.

"If they will not give answers to our questions, how are we supposed to fix this?" Thor asked Loki in frustration."

Loki didn't know. Other than the strange stares he had gotten from the child and the waitress there was nothing outwardly different about the townspeople that could easily distinguish the hosts. He wasn't sure how to go about this. He looked up and down the street, taking in the shops and few people milling around. Thor was right. Loki doubted that they would get many answers just by looking around the small town, particularly looking the way they did at the moment.

Something black moved out of the corner of his eye, he stiffened for a moment thinking that it was an Armark. As soon as he turned, however, Loki saw that in reality it was a Midgardian vehicle with very familiar initials. The vehicle stopped near the brothers, and Loki read the letters printed on the side. S.H.I.E.L.D. Apparently, they weren't satisfied with simply saddling him with Thor; they also wanted to burden him with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who likely still hated him for his actions. Loki sighed.


	10. Chapter 10

As the doors to the black S.H.I.E.L.D vehicle opened, two men in dark suits came out, and began walking towards the two of them. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Thor turning towards the men as well, but Loki's main focus of attention was drawn elsewhere. There was a youth across the street whose dark eyes were boring into him. That gaze it sent a chill through his bones and made him want to shiver. It was very disconcerting, so disconcerting that he hadn't realized that the people around him were talking. He blinked as he realized they were all looking at him expectantly, the two agents with barely disguised anger. He had no idea what they had been talking about while he hadn't been paying attention but he wasn't willing to admit to it. Apparently, one of the agents, who was broad with sandy-colored hair, and a clean-shaven face realized that Loki had not been paying attention.

"What are you doing here?" the man asked with the air of someone who was repeating a question. Loki rolled his eyes and drew himself and as a consequence, the agents and The Thunderer walked over to the side of a building... to make their very public conversation slightly less so.

"I'm trying to find out which people in this town are hosts," he answered in a low voice.

"And how exactly are you planning on doing that?" the sandy-haired man asked again. His partner didn't speak, simply waiting for Loki's answer instead. The sandy-haired agent's partner had black hair, and a beard that wasn't fully grown. He had a squashed nose and eyes that were too close together. The effect of his particular facial features made him entirely unattractive and rather difficult to look at.

He didn't really know. His current method of just walking around seeing which Midgardians looked like they might be hosts wasn't working very well. Though he did have three people who he suspected to be hosts. It was something, but he couldn't explain it to the agents without first telling them the truth. He had to tell the agents something though, if only to stop them from staring accusingly at him. He wracked his brain for something to occupy their time, something that might be useful in their search.

"We'll ask them questions, see if we can spot patterns of differences in behavior. See if any of them notice anything strange." Loki finally said. It wasn't the greatest plan since no one had noticed anything with him, but it was the best that he could think of. The two agents looked less than impressed with his plan and the black haired Midgardian was focused on his clothing. Right, he was wearing a glamor that would not help him in his quest for answers.

"When I asked a question they looked at me like I was mad," Thor reminded him. Loki nodded he hadn't forgotten, it had only happened minutes ago after all.

"That's because you don't command authority the way you are dressed," Loki explained. It probably also had something to do with the bizarre nature of the question as well but he decided not to focus on that part. He looked at the two agents clothing, suits and somewhat cheap suits at that, Still.

"Well, if we're going to be asking people questions, we probably should look the part," Loki said and checked the street again. The teen was gone, and as far as he could see, there were no eyes on them. Loki's and Thor's clothes both changed from the rustic style to mirror the suits of the two agents. This way, they would at least have the authority their previous rustic clothes were lacking.

"Let's try this again," he said, as he gazed at the store next to the grocery store they had just come out of. He knew, this time, he'd have the two agents, as well as Thor shadowing him, watching his every move, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He was just going to have to make the best of this situation.

* * *

The first few hours had told them nothing. It was too early for the Armarks to have a noticeable effect on strangers, only close family would be able to tell there was a difference. Then again, with how small the town was, most of the town probably was infected with the parasites, and wouldn't notice the same behaviors in their friends or family. He wasn't sure how long it would normally take people to recognize their family members weren't acting like themselves, since his family never had. He wasn't bitter about that; he wasn't. He didn't care what anyone in Asgard thought of him, least of all Thor or Odin. The only person in the world he cared what they thought of him was Frigga, his mother and now she was dead because of him. He shook his head. Now was not the time for thinking about that.

* * *

They had just finished up talking to another shopkeeper and were on their way to the next. There were only two left and then he supposed they would have to focus on homes. The interviews themselves were boring when it wasn't a host and very uncomfortable for him if it was. Thankfully, neither Thor nor the Agents Uninteresting and Unappealing seemed to notice the hosts gaze. He had taken to calling the sandy-haired man 'Uninteresting' and the agent with the squashed nose 'Unappealing', as he had yet to learn their true names.

"Loki-"

"Agent Johnson," he interrupted, as that was the name he had introduced himself as in the first shop. Somewhere, although he couldn't recall where, he had learned of the popularity of that particular last name. The two agents hadn't been particularly fond of him pretending to be an agent, but if was going to be followed around by agents, he was going to use it to his advantage.

"Silence, I'm thinking," he said to head off whatever Thor was trying to say to him. Thor had tried a few times in the last few hours to make small talk, but Loki hadn't let it get further than a few words before halting the conversation. Just because they were forcing him to work with Thor, didn't mean that he was going to talk to him.

As much as he liked the S.H.I.E.L.D agents, and knew that they liked him in return, he was slightly grateful for their appearance, as it would mean that he would no longer have to deal solely with the blond buffon.

"We have two more shops left," he spoke, as he saw Thor open his mouth to speak. He ignored the livid look in the blond's eyes and looked to the agents instead who nodded. Agent Unappealing looked from Thor and Loki for a moment before focusing back on him.

"Then we will start to focus on the homes," Loki continued speaking just to keep Thor from talking. Even given the Midgardians and Thor's lower level of intelligence, he was fairly sure that they could guess where their next step was. Thankfully, by the time his brief speech was finished, they had walked the short distance it had taken to reach the next shop. He was saved from having to talk to Thor for just a little bit longer.


	11. Chapter 11

Other than the short dinner that they had taken, they had spent the rest of the evening conducting interviews. At least, until it was no longer socially acceptable for them. S.H.I.E.L.D didn't want to cause a panic until they knew more about what they were dealing with, and Loki grudgingly agreed with them. As it was too late to do anymore interviews, they had put him in a motel. The room was something that he would generally deem beneath himself, except he had hardly any Midgardian money. If he had the energy, he would change the room into a form more to his liking, but he didn't.

The bed, though squalid, looked no less appealing. He was exhausted in every way that one could be exhausted, but had yet to touch the bed. Fear of what might take over his mind if he allowed it to stop thinking for long enough was present in his mind. Instead, he had managed to get the S.H.I.E.L.D agents to get him extremely basic files of the inhabitants of the town. He spent his time mentally linking the suspected hosts with their names and locations. If one was infected, the odds went up that their family members were likely to be infected as well.

He also had a simple map of the very small town whose main street was only five blocks in total length. The surrounding areas were somewhat larger, and many of the inhabitants seemed to live in said surrounding areas. Though he was studying the map, he wasn't marking it visibly. If he were to mark it, then he would have to explain why he suspected those particular individuals to SHIELD. Instead, he kept a mental picture of all the correlated data that was brewing in his head.

Although he had his own room, Agents Unappealing and Uninteresting had keys to his quarters. The two would check in randomly every few hours to make sure that he was still there. To their credit. at least they didn't try disguise it as anything other than it was. He had no idea how much transparency mattered to him before today.

* * *

After spending several hours working on SHIELD's files, and cross-referencing them on the map, his eyes began to droop. It was well past mid-night, but the sun had as yet had not begun to rise. His eyes were screaming for relief, to just be closed for a few moments, but if he obeyed those wishes he could be trapped in a nightmare which he would rather avoid.

He continued staring at the map. He blinked, struggling to stay awake. He wished he could obtain something to keep him awake, but he already drinking the swill that the Midgardians called coffee. And, unfortunately for him, the agents had already told him that they were not there for his comfort. One would think they didn't like him, he thought dryly.

He frowned at the map as the mental spots in his mind were blurring together, and he couldn't quite remember where each dot was supposed to be. In fact everything was quite fuzzy and his eyelids seemed impossibly heavy.

No, he couldn't sleep.

He couldn't sleep.

* * *

_A black dot. The black dot was hovering just over his skin only for it suddenly multiplied and became hundreds. Loki ran but the black dots gave chase._

A loud noise jolted him from his-resting of his eyes. A glance at the clock told that he had only rested for two hours. He noted that he still felt exhausted, and to add to that, there was an aching in his limbs that hadn't been there before he went to sleep. The ache likely came from his hunched-over position from sleeping on the desk. Everything in him wanted to fall face first into the bed's comforter and sleep the next five years away. A sudden knocking on the door reminded him of what had woken him up in the first place, and what it had saved him from. He sat up and looked down at his blank map,

"You better not be naked," a voice said before his door was opened. Loki briefly considered being so just to spite him, but was too tired. Not to mention he didn't feel much like exposing that much skin to an enemy who, if given the opportunity, would most likely use it to his advantage.

"A concern that you didn't seem to share last night," Loki said dryly as he pulled himself to his feet, which somehow even though he had slept briefly, felt even more like lead than they had the day before. The agent didn't respond. Loki noted briefly that it was Agent Uninteresting. He couldn't decide whether or not he was better than Agent Unappealing, though he supposed in the end that it didn't really matter. He raised an eyebrow at the agent, silently asking him why he was still intruding on his space. The agent didn't respond and seemed to be looking around his room, but only for about a half a minute before he turned his attention back to the tired being.

"We're going back out in 20 minutes,"

"Fine, now get out," he ordered, annoyed that they were ordering him around like he was a human, or worse like he was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. But he still needed them, which was the only reason that he was going to allow it for now. That, and he was too tired to throw Midgardians around.

As soon as the agent left, Loki scanned his room. There wasn't much to look at, mostly just the bed with its unruffled covers, and all the files and papers on the tables. There was no personal touches to this room, nor would there ever be. This was not a home, or somewhere that he wished would feel like home. As soon he took care of the Armarks, he would never frequent this Midgardian town again. Where would he go? Where was he welcome? He laughed a short unpleasant laugh. He wasn't welcome anywhere because of what he had done. Before he could think anymore about that, he pushed it back again.

As he stood up, all he could feel was the exhaustion dragging at his bones. He looked towards the place where he had found the Midgardian beverage, coffee, the night before, only to find that he used all that the establishment that they were currently staying at had given him. Wincing at the thought of trying to stay up unaided, he made his way to the door.

In a couple of strides, he was across the hallway, and he banged on the door. A few moments later, the door opened with a puzzled looking Thor frowning at him. He was towel-drying his wet blond locks with a white towel, obviously fresh from a bath, as his gray shirt and black jeans clung to him and were still rather wet. The blond opened his mouth to say something but Loki didn't let him.

"Give me your coffee," he demanded. The Thunderer frowned even more after his demand, and made no move to do as he asked.

"Loki are you-" Loki shook his head not willing to let him finish whatever it was he was trying it ask

"All-" he stopped then amended "Thor, if you do not give me your coffee, you will regret it," He spoke slowly, leaving no room for misunderstandings. Thor's eyebrows scrunched up on his face but he said nothing. The blond merely walked to where his own Midgardian device was, and handed him what he wanted. Loki nodded to him and then quickly made his way back to his own room.

Twenty minutes later, he was dressed. And due to the effects of the coffee, he was more alert than he had been before. He opened the door just in time to come face to face with Agent Unappealing. He shut his door as Thor's own door opened, and spotted Agent Uninteresting behind him. Loki took in a deep breath and mentally prepared himself to start yesterday all over again.


	12. Chapter 12

Thor handed him the pad again. He had talked to Stark a few times over the past couple of days, and had overheard Thor talking to him as well. Things that didn't need to be directed to him were usually redirected to Thor or the agents. He had overheard that the fighting was settling down, and they would probably be there either that night or tomorrow to investigate in person.

He supposed he was grateful, the more agents/Avengers meant there was less face to face time with Thor. If they were all there, perhaps he could ignore the blond completely. Loki was doing his best at the moment, but with only three people, and with the agents practically ignoring him, it was difficult to ignore Thor completely. However, very few words had been exchanged between the two of them. But that was mostly because Loki had made it clear he didn't want to talk to Thor. At least not until he knew his own mind.

This time though as he was handed the StarkPad, it was not Stark's face who greeted him, rather instead it was the other side of The Hulk. Loki's eyes narrowed at him and he nearly turned off the device then and there. This man's counterpart had hurt him severely. His blood boiled at the memory, but he was not nearly as angry as he had been when it had happened. It was largely due to this that he was able to remind himself that the human side of the Hulk was a scientist, and would probably have helpful insights into the current problem.

"Hello."

"Hello," Loki replied coldly. He could be professional when it suited him like it did at the moment. The man sighed.

"What have you found out?"

"Why don't you ask Thor?" Loki said a smirk knowing that Thor didn't understand much more than Armarks bad free, Avengers good. It was probably also the reason the scientist had asked to talk to him. Loki was the one who understood what they were after. The others had never ever heard of The Armarks before he had brought it their attention.

"Cause I'm asking you," the man replied. Loki smirked knowing that he was protecting Thor. The raven-haired being wasn't sure exactly what his thoughts were on Thor. Loki wasn't even sure that he hated Thor anymore, but he was used to putting as many verbal barbs into Thor as he could. Even before they became enemies they would often tease each other.

No, he didn't want to think about that.

"Tony told you we're coming either tonight or tomorrow, right?" The scientist asked to which Loki nodded. "So I'd rather be caught up now."

Loki sighed, because there wasn't really much to say. They had spent more than the better part of two days communicating with humans. The only way that he had been able to deduce the Armarks from the normal humans was a guess. A guess based simply on a stare that he wouldn't be able to explain to the Avengers or anyone else. He hated having to work with the Avengers. Especially the man called Banner whose other side had smashed him into the wall. But he knew what the alternative was, and he liked that even less. He decided for once to be honest, at least partially.

"There is no way to tell which ones are hosts and which ones aren't so far," Loki admitted. All he had were the stares, but he was sure that the Avengers wouldn't just let him tell him they were Armarks without the truth or at least some kind of tangible proof. Nor did they have any real plan on what to do with the hosts when they found out someone was one. Loki knew he should be the one to think of it, but he was tired.

His mind and body were exhausted. Despite Iron Man apparently reluctantly paying for his hotel room, as he had groused about all the times that he had talked to him, Loki couldn't find any lasting sleep. Leaving him in a perpetual state of exhaustion. Any time Loki tried to sleep, all he could think about was the fact that he was in the same town as the hosts. One of them could explode in the night and make their way into his head, then he would be a host again.

"There's no sign on them that says 'Armarks this way'?" Banner asked. It was an attempt at a joke, at least Loki was pretty sure it was. But the exhaustion that permeated his being made him too tired to laugh, nor did he find anything about The Armarks amusing anyways.

"No," he replied simply. Loki felt that he should know what to do, but he didn't, and he hated that more anything. He always liked to think himself as smart. The man with a plan, even if most of his plans hadn't really ended up the way he had at the time hoped. Did he still want to rule Midgard? Did he still want Jotunheim destroyed? He didn't know. Loki shook his head and tried to get his mind back on finding and stopping the Armarks, and away from the effects of The Armarks.

"So the Armarks feed on anger?"

Loki processed what the scientist had asked and nodded. The scientist looked like he was thinking hard.

"So does the other guy... I mean sort of," Loki blinked and vaguely remembered that was what the scientist called the Hulk. He really didn't want to hear about the Hulk right now and was about to change the subject when the scientist spoke again.

"He only shows up when I'm angry. Well, I'm always angry. But he shows up when my pulse goes over 200 beats a minute," Loki processed this and it spun around in his head even as he heard Banner say.

"You don't think that they're related do you?" The scientist asked sounding hopeful as if maybe they were related and as if capturing the Armarks could also stop what was happening to him.

Loki shook his head.

"If it were the Armarks it wouldn't have turned you green. There are no distinct visible changes in a host. At least nothing that couldn't be explained by other causes. Also if it was the Armarks, then at some point you would have expelled them. That would have either hurt or killed you, either way, you would have noticed." The scientist nodded but looked a little crestfallen. The scientist looked like he was trying to hide it but Loki was able to see through it.

"Alright, well, I'll guess I'll see you later tonight or in the morning," the scientist said distracted and clicked off the screen. Loki handed the Starkpad back to his broth- Thor and hurriedly made his way to his own room. He may have caught a few unwanted hours of sleep here and there, but his bed was still as neatly made is it had been on his first night. Largely due to his stubbornness to not willing fall prey to slumber and the nightmares that it brought. He had also stolen more of the vile drink called coffee. With it, he usually only had to endure an hour or so of sleep before he got back to trying to trace where The Armarks were. A difficult feat without much proof or barely anything to go on.

Ignoring the inviting, soft bed again he sat at the much harder desk. He stared down at the maps and limited files he had, blinking as sleep started to rear it's ugly head again. He rose and set to making some of what was called instant coffee. A truly disgusting blend; its only redeeming grace was that for short periods of time it made him a lot less tired. As he waited for the coffee machine to change the powder into a liquid he peered out of his window.

It was night. There was only a sliver of the moon showing in the sky bathing the town underneath only weakly in its rays. His eyes though were drawn to the stars where were plentiful in the small town. Something he had noticed early on was how many stars one could see. The constellations were unfamiliar here. When he was younger he had spent many years searching for constellations, only that had been on Asgard. The planets were aligned differently on Midgard. Loki shook his head banishing the thoughts of Asgard again. Instead, he focused in on Banner's words. There was something about them that was bugging him. Something he should know. What was it? Loki stood up straight as he suddenly knew.

Banner.

If Banner's monster come out when his pulse reached 200 beats per minute then likely the hosts would trigger at the same rate or similar rate. Which at least tell them when they were reacting and why. He couldn't make the Avengers believe someone was an Armark just because he said so. But he could certainly find someone who was extremely angry, and make the Avengers see it that way.

At least now there was a way to track them before they went too violent and exploded. Now, if only he could sleep.

* * *

Loki spent the morning going around putting monitoring spells on all the people he suspected to be hosts. He went alone and left a duplicate in his bed just in case Thor or the Agents came to check on him. Loki came back just in time to see Thor staring at him. Loki just snapped his fingers and the duplicate went away. Thor turned around and stared at him.

"Where were you?" Thor asked accusingly and Loki rolled his eyes.

"I took a walk." It wasn't a complete lie. Teleporting would be an unnecessary and flagrant use of power. Until they knew how quickly it was going to go through these people, Loki wasn't going to use his more draining powers unless he had to.

"The Avengers will be here in less than an hour," Thor said like he was trying to figure Loki out, and Loki rolled his eyes again. Thor had never understood him, he certainly was unlikely to figure it out now.

"Alright," Loki replied noncommittally.

"Loki what is-" Loki stiffened; he didn't want to talk to Thor, not about him or anything that mattered.

"Thor why don't go wait in your own room before I make you leave," Loki said stiffly. Thor looked briefly like he wanted to argue but in the end just sighed and left. Loki heard the knock on his door a few minutes later and ignored it assuming it was Thor.

"Technically since I'm paying for it, this is my room, so you better damn well answer the door." Stark, Loki thought, was at least as annoying as Thor. Loki flicked his hand and the door opened to reveal Stark, and Banner, and Captain America all standing in his doorway. They looked strange without their superhero outfits. Even though he had seen all of them that way in the tower, except for Captain America who had apparently been elsewhere.

"The rest of SHIELD will be here tomorrow and Fury really wants to talk to you," Stark said sounding really happy about it. Fury. Damn, he had forgotten about the angry man who ran S.H.I.E.L.D "He wanted to come today, but things in New York need still need a little smoothing out."

His eyes focused slowly on the Captain, the only one of three of them that he hadn't talked to with StarkPad pad. He remembered creating the illusion on himself that made him look like the Midgardian in front of him when Thor had broken him out of prison. Loki shook his head clearing his thoughts. Armarks first, then he would figure out whether or not he felt guilty for faking his death.

"So apparently if I've interpreted the situation right, so far, you guys got squat," Stark said, sitting down across him on his desk chair and leaning it backward. Stark looked as comfortable as one would think he would be in his own house, not like he was Loki's unfamiliar hotel room. Stark wasn't right, but Loki couldn't exactly share the other part of the equation so he reluctantly nodded.

"Yet," Loki clarified.

"You don't even have a single host," Stark said.

"We will," Loki said slightly surprised to find his voice more than slightly defensive.

"You don't know how fast it will spread."

"I-"

"You aren't even sure how many there are," Loki glared at Stark. He really didn't like him. Before, Loki would have killed him. But either the knowledge that if he did it would affect his ability to stop The Armarks, or he was less bloodthirsty than he used. One of those stopped him from killing or even injuring the Midgardian in front of him.

"What is your point?" Loki hissed through his teeth.

"No point," Stark said flippantly, "just pointing it out." Loki was grateful that that was the moment the pulse alarm he had instituted that morning went off.

"We may have one," he said before grabbing the smaller pad that could also be used to communicate from the table that was between them. He quickly changed his face and teleported away.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers.**

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Loki zeroed in on the source as he teleported and appeared just in time to see one of the suspected hosts. A man that was white with short brown hair and a moderate sized mole on his left cheek, punch a somewhat larger also white male. The person who was being injured was bleeding steadily from his nose, mouth. The blood was all over his face and leaked down over his otherwise clean shaven face and stained his white shirt. There also seemed to bruises blooming on the victim's left eye and in the chest area. Despite this, the assailant didn't seem interested in stopping even as the victim was on the floor. The only thing he was even attempting to do was block his face from the rather violent attack.

When the smaller made to viciously kick the other man, Loki knew he should probably do something about it. If he didn't stop this sooner rather than later, one of them might die and if it was the host that the parasites likely spread quicker. Loki waved his hand and the aggressor fell asleep where he stood...who just happened to be leaning towards the man he was been accosting causing the aggressor to fall directly on top of his victim. The victim made an 'umph' sound when his assailant fell right onto his chest.

Midgardians and their weak stamina. Even after he had been beaten by The Hulk he had been able to stand only a little while later. The guy groaned in pain as he pushed weakly at the man on top of him. Loki gazed briefly around the place as he heard the man's grunts. Dim lighting wooden tables and wooden stools.

Loki looked to the man again as he heard sounds of freeing himself. The conscious Midgardian's eyes were wide and alarmed as he pushed the man off of him. The man in the now stained red shirt stood up as quickly as he could and moved several feet away from the unconscious man, not taking his eyes off him. He looked as if he feared that the man's eyes would open and he would charge at him again. Granted, due to the damage caused it was not a completely unreasonable fear.

That's when the Midgardian's eyes locked onto his. The guy looked at him scared, but not because he recognized who Loki really was. No, Loki always wore a face other than his own in public. He didn't like it, but he realized if he was going to make sure the Armarks never took him as host again it was a necessary evil. He also wasn't scared of Loki's magic, because Loki had made sure that he was invisible when he had teleported in. He had only taken off the invisibility when he was sure that neither one of them was looking in his direction.

"What happened?" he asked the conscious Midgardian, acting like he was a fool who had no idea. It burned him a little to have to play the fool, but sometimes the truth would not be helpful in certain situations, and this was one of those times.

"Tyler just came out of nowhere and for no reason starting wailing on me." The mortal man was lying. It was often easier for a liar to spot one himself. The man knew exactly why the now unconscious man had hit him but he didn't want to admit it. Loki didn't really care though about petty human squabbles, all he cared was that he suspected the unconscious man of being a host and as far as he could tell, the other man wasn't.

Loki shook his head, annoyed, but took out the Stark communication device he had been reluctantly given by the agents this morning just before Stark's arrival. He had mastered it easily enough, even though it had taken him a little longer then what he might have thought for something so primitive. Loki made a mental note to disassemble it sometime to see how it worked. He scrolled down the preassembled list of his contact. There weren't many admittedly, but he knew he didn't want to talk to Stark or Thor. He pressed down instead on the one that said Captain America.

"Hello," came Captain America's voice over the line. He wasn't sure why they always started with 'hello' but right now he didn't care.

"I'm in town and I think I have found one," Loki said even though he was almost sure that he had. He looked down at the unconsciously body on the floor for a moment before looking back at the bloody still startled looking mortal who was also looking down at the mortal.

"Where are you?" Loki scanned the interior again and despite the differences he was fairly sure he was safe in saying.

"I'm at a tavern," he said. The place smelled strongly of spirits and a glance behind the counter showed bottles of liquid he knew was meant to imbibe. There were a few of what looked like shattered glasses on the counter and dripping over onto the floor near where the scuffle had taken place. They were probably the first casualties in the attack. The victim was lucky that he hadn't fallen onto the glass when his aggressor had knocked him to the floor.

"A bar?" Captain America asked.

"Just get here," he said irritated and hung up the phone. He had to wait a good five minutes before the Avengers actually got there. Loki never did like waiting and the still bleeding man kept trying to convince him that he had no idea why he was attacked, unsuccessfully.

The three of them,plus Thor, who they had apparently told, walked in. The Midgardian didn't seem to notice them right away. Apparently, without their little outfits added to the fact that Stark was wearing sunglasses and a hat, they weren't nearly as noticeable in their everyday clothing. Thor still looked strange in Midgardian clothing to him but Loki was getting more used to it as the last few days had wore on. After the first day Thor had worn real midgardian clothing, but this time rather than a cheap suit he was wearing those blue pants...jeans he thought they were called and a more relaxed shirt.

"What took you so long?" he snapped.

"Sorry but we can't all teleport." Captain said softly, so that the other mortal couldn't hear. He then turned to the man who had paused, and was now taking in the plainly dressed Avengers with a slightly confused look in his eyes, like he knew they were familiar but just couldn't place them.

"What happened here?" Rogers asked authoritatively. For some reason, the captain was in charge. Although he wasn't quite sure how that happened when the rest of the group had agreed to work with him when he hadn't even been there. He didn't have to say anything though because the man began to claim again that the unconscious man had attacked him for absolutely no reason and how he was just an innocent bystander in the whole thing. Loki rolled his eyes. The guy was not lying well.

"Tell them the truth," he spoke cutting off the man's lies. The man looked from Loki to the Avengers and back again. Then he smiled weakly.

"I don't-"

"Tell them the truth," Loki snapped and he made it obvious that this was the last time he was going to ask nicely. The man stared at Loki for a long moment, before he looked down at the hardwood floors, embarrassed and little ashamed. He cleared his throat before speaking barely above a mumble.

"Tyler's not usually the kind of guy who stands up for himself, so I- and everyone tends to take advantage of him. I guess he finally got tired of it." And he understood now why this Midgardian, Tyler, had been the first to react to the Armarks. Anger could give you courage or an unclear mind that didn't think about consequences. It made sense.

"Tyler is one," he said to the others and they nodded. It was funny he had suspected so when he had met him on the first day. He had ran into him in the hardware store. He had avoided eye contact with all the other Midgardians but he had stared at Loki almost the entire time he had been there. All of them did when he was around them.

"What should we do with him?" the alter ego of The Hulk asked, and even though he hadn't been asking Loki, he responded anyways.

"I have an idea."

* * *

Loki did have an idea, but his idea had been overruled by Fury (who wasn't even there yet). Granted, Fury's idea was better, though Loki would would rather eat nails for breakfast than admitting it aloud. Fury's idea was to quarantine the town like there was actually a sickness that could spread. It wasn't a complete and total lie...

S.H.I. needed a place away from prying eyes, so Loki had suggested his warehouse. S.H.I.E.L.D and his magic quickly turned the main room of the factory into a makeshift hospital. More S.H.I.E.L.D agents had arrived within the hour to set the town up with cameras. They didn't want to start a panic until absolutely necessary, but they also didn't want to lose any people in the town.

Loki looked at the human, Tyler,who was behind a thick wall of plastic, even though the plastic wouldn't help keep the Armarks from spreading. Still, it was clean and there was a bed in there. It wasn't a terrible place for a human to be kept until such time as he could leave. Loki shook his head, a cage was a cage, no matter how it looked; his own cell in Asgard was proof of that.

His idea hadn't been much different, just holding them in cells rather than hospital room's. The Avengers hadn't liked the idea of caging people though. But apparently they didn't mind holding them in hospital rooms even though they weren't sick, at least not in any kind of way that most doctors on earth could understand. They had no problems when they had caged him. Then again, he'd been a host a long longer. He wondered how the Avengers would react as the parasites were fed more.

The Midgardian Tyler he was not happy about being in the cage/ hospital room. He had spent 30 minutes a few days ago when he had first arrived yelling about how his Dad was going to sue them. He raged on about how he knew his rights and he wanted a lawyer. His face was still red and his eyes looked like they could melt steel. Perhaps he was extra angry because of the magic shield around his cell? He hoped so. It was the strongest magical shield he could construct. Loki had to just hope that it would keep the creatures in if it went that far.

He found he liked, well maybe liked wasn't the right word, but he felt compelled to watch the human Tyler. The first day all Tyler had done was pace up and down the small room like a caged tiger. Where had that comparison come from? He shook his head and pushed it out of his mind as he looked at the enraged human in front of him.

Loki could tell the human had a lot of pent of rage inside of him that until now he had been too scared to let come out. Was that him? Granted, he had usually let some of his rage out in the form of pranks and some in sparing or magic, but he had also done his fair share of bottling and hiding his emotions.

Loki blinked as he heard someone enter the room. He looked up to see the Hulk's alter ego step in the room holding food. The Hulk's alter ego didn't look all that surprised to see him there, even though it had been Captain America which had given the Midgardian sustenance last time. He looked at Loki who waved his hand and for a moment the shield faltered. Bruce slid the food into the food tray. There was biohazard gear on the walls but since the human Tyler wasn't actually contagious in the normal way, there was no point of using it unless someone came that didn't know what was going on. Loki put back up the shield again and looked around at the room.

There were 25 quarantined rooms in each large room and 5 large rooms one on each floor. Due to SHIELD and his magic it looked the same as the picture they had shown him of an apparently normal Midgardian hospital. He hoped that there wasn't more than 125 of them. As it was he hadn't been able to do much more than essential magic until today. Creating material from thin air was much more stressful than he remembered and doing on such a large scale made it even worse.

The other quarantine rooms would probably get their residents soon, although how soon was anyone's guess. Tyler had only been in his room for 38 hours and no new people had shown themselves. When there were more humans, than it was going to be more taxing to keep the magical shields up. Not to mention Loki was going to see even more versions of himself playing out. Loki waited for Bruce to leave him again but he headed straight for him. Loki rolled his eyes. Just perfect. What did Banner want?

"Why are you in here?"

"I'm keeping the spell going," Loki lied poorly. Eventually he was going to have to leave when the next person showed themselves and then they would know that the shield did not require his constant attention. He was usually a better liar than this.

"What do you think about Tyler's situation?" Bruce asked. Loki's eyes narrowed at him trying to figure out exactly what he was trying to ascertain with a question like that.

"If you're asking do I feel guilty about Tyler predicament? I do not." Loki said although he wasn't entirely sure whether or not he was being truthful with that statement.

"So you're fine with the fact that Tyler may die if we don't find a way to stop it?"

"Your human lives are so fleeting anyways." Loki said blithely like he didn't care. He heard someone else open the door and his eyes narrowed as he saw Thor. Thor had renewed his attempt to talk to him in the last 12 hours had tried to talk to him about 5 times in that period. Loki wasn't sure what Thor wanted to talk about but whatever it was he did not want to hear about it. He got up off the chair he had magicked himself long ago and pushed past Thor.

"Loki-"

"I don't want to talk to you! I may be forced to work with you but I don't want to talk to you!" He didn't because he still was confused about everything and Thor was the one most likely to get him angry enough that he admitted the truth. He would not let that happen. It wasn't an option.

He exited into the familiar and unfamiliar hall . Loki barely remembered the warehouse that he had spent the last few months in, but he had gotten rid of anything that might show that he had lived there previously before he had brought the Avengers there. Somehow he doubted the Avengers would like finding out that less than a week ago he had planned to blow up all of Midgard and he had made the bomb there.

Loki made his way far enough down the hallway then ducked into an empty room. Did he know this room? He had lived here for months but had he ever been in this room before? He wished he had even half the amount of answers that he had questions. It wasn't sitting well with him the not knowing. Loki looked around made himself invisible since he did not want to appear to The Avengers as weak but couldn't help curling into a ball.

He was not going to cry, he was above that but he still felt...lost and confused. He didn't much time to contemplate it though when he heard Thor's loud boisterous voice echo through the Warehouse.

"Loki? Loki where are you?" Loki sighed, in a way he was glad that Thor interrupted his bleak thoughts. Not that he was going to tell the Thunderer that. Loki made himself visible as he stood up and put on a good face.

"What do you want?" Loki snapped, he couldn't talk to Thor. Not in any real or deep kind of way, not until he figured out whether or not he was at a heart a villain or not.

"To talk to you Loki. You've been acting very strangely," Thor said with concern. Loki took that in. Acting strangely? Had he been acting strangely? Did he even know how he was supposed to act anymore? He had spent years so driven mad by the Armarks. How was he supposed to act now that they were in him no longer? Loki shook his head, he was forgetting that he couldn't talk to Thor until he had answers so he pushed past him and back into the hallway.

"No I'm simply not acting how you want me to act," he said and left Thor behind him yet again. Where was he going to go now? If he was apart much longer from the other Avengers then they would probably suspect him of some wrongdoing.

Why did he care? Because they were helping to get rid of the Armarks he reminded himself. Was that the only reason? Did he care for his b-Thor? He still had a hard time calling Thor brother even in his head. He still felt rage at him, still hated him most of the time...but not always. There were moments, even if they were outnumbered by the hateful feeling where Loki wanted to talk to his brother to tell him the truth. Loki wished he could know his own thoughts but he didn't.

Loki froze in mid-step and frowned as he felt another alarm go off. Another one of the humans was triggering their alarm. He walked into one of the larger but not quarantine rooms. It was headquarters, at least that what the humans were calling it. It had a great many S.H.I. people talking to other people using the Midgardian cell phones and a bunch of people hunched over computers, maps and books.

Loki however passed by all of that to a smaller room. This was the room that Avengers had chosen as their own at least during the daytime. Loki frowned as he saw the brand new stuffed leather couches that looked horribly out of place in the middle of the abandoned factory with a dusty and cracked cement floor. This section hadn't been renovated like the others. The couches certainly hadn't been there before today and he had a feeling how they had come to be there. He looked at Stark who just smiled back at him and lifted his eyebrows at him like he was taunting him but Loki didn't rise to the bait.

He was slightly startled to see Black Widow and Hawkeye both there and both glaring at him along with Banner. He wasn't overly surprised to see the glares of the Black Widow and Hawkeye but a little surprised since no one had told him that they were coming. Then again he supposed that maybe he wasn't on their top list to tell about such things. Loki looked at Banner and wondered if he still irritated maybe even angry about his comment. However, apparently not enough for Loki to be meeting the scientist other side which he supposed he was grateful for.

"There's another one. I'll call you with the details when I get there," he said then teleported himself to the source

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**Thanks for reading please let know what you think.**

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think :)


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